It doesn’t matter how good a film may be, there always has to be discourse. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has released to rave reviews, with its audience score sitting at a staggering 98% over on Rotten Tomatoes. Brand New Day‘s box office is passing one milestone after another, and there’s genuine debate whether it will actually outperform this year’s upcoming Avengers blockbuster. Tom Holland gives the performance of his lifetime, Sadie Sink has officially become the MCU’s Jean Grey, and even classic Spider-Man writers are praising the film’s script.
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But, this is the internet. Naturally, that means some Marvel fans are keen to demonstrate the kind of toxicity you only find online, and Jon Watts – director of the Homecoming trilogy – is currently being bombarded with unfair criticisms.
Fans are calling him out for overuse of CGI, poorer cinematography and set construction, and dissatisfying character arcs. Some of the comments aren’t too critical, but others feel downright nasty.
Do Spider-Man Fans Have a Point With Jon Watts’ Homecoming Trilogy?
Spider-Man fans are clearly reacting in quite an absurd way here. The mindset comes from the odd “versus mindset” that tends to run through the internet, where everything has to be set against something else; as useful and enjoyable as rankings may be, there is often an edge, an attempt to weaponize opinion rather than simply celebrate the good and the better. In this case, though, the core problem lies with a failure to actually understand the context of the different films. Marvel’s deal with Sony clearly meant Spider-Man films were expected to release at two-year intervals during the Homecoming trilogy era, meaning those movies are naturally a lot less polished.
As regards CGI, it’s worth noting that popular culture has changed over the last few years. Marvel and Sony were far from unique in using CGI, and a lot of it is phenomenal; in fact, I’d argue the Homecoming trilogy often displays some of the best. That said, Marvel in particular became known for poor CGI in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, and it wasn’t the fault of the creative teams; time pressures meant CGI houses rarely had the time they needed, and they often received requests to change everything at absurd speed. This, coupled with the current push against AI in filmmaking, has led to increased love of practical effect. Destin Daniel Cretton’s Brand New Day is riding that wave.
It’s amusing to note some comments that single out No Way Home as “trying its best.” Again, we’re rewriting history here; this time, on an even more spectacular scale. Jon Watts was worried he wouldn’t even be able to finish filming due to the COVID pandemic. “Before COVID, we planned a big New York location shoot with tons of extras,” he recalled. “That became impossible. Even the most basic shot, of Peter Parker walking down the street, became a multilayered VFX shot.” Holland later recalled that he might have done about three days on location, simply because anything else was possible. Looking back, No Way Home is testimony to the skills of the VFX team and CGI.
Ultimately, though, here’s the simple fact some fans don’t seem to appreciate; this isn’t a versus match, a case of pitting Watts against Cretton. Both are skilled filmmakers, but they operated in very different contexts, and Cretton had a lot more time to work on his film. Given changes in popular culture, it’s surely unsurprising that a film releasing today resonates more effectively than ones that released between 2017 and 2021. Instead of trying to argue it out, let’s just celebrate that Marvel, Sony, and Cretton have built so well on what came before.
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